SCOR Velogica Moves to AWS for Better Security, SOC2

While some large enterprises avoid moving to the cloud because of rigid security and compliance requirements, SCOR opted for the cloud for a key block of its business precisely because of the cloud’s rigid security and compliance offerings.

SCOR is a leader in the life reinsurance market in the Americas, offering broad capabilities in risk management, capital management and value-added services and solutions. A number of primary insurers use SCOR’s automated life underwriting system, Velogica, to market life insurance policies that can be delivered at the point of sale. Other companies use Velogica as a triage tool for their fully underwritten business.

“Through the Velogica system, we get thousands of life insurance applications a day from multiple clients,” explains Dave Dorans, Senior Vice President. “Velogica is a significant part of our value proposition and is important to the future of our business.”

Data security has always been a priority for SCOR but the issue became even more critical as data breaches at some of the largest and most respected companies made headline news. SCOR decided to invest in a state of the art data security framework for Velogica. “We wanted clients to have full confidence in the way Velogica stores and handles the sensitive personal data of individuals,” Dorans said.

SCOR’s goal was to have Velogica accredited as a Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 organization – a competitive advantage in the marketplace – by aligning with one of the more respected information security standards in the industry. Determining what it would take to achieve that goal became the responsibility of Clarke Rodgers, Chief Information Security Officer with SCOR Velogica. “We quickly determined that SOC2 accreditation for SCOR’s traditional, on premise data center environment would be a monumental task, could cost millions of dollars and perhaps take years to complete. Moreover, while SOC2 made sense for Velogica, it wasn’t necessary for other SCOR businesses.

Once it was determined that SOC2 was business critical for the company, Rodgers, analyzed the different ways of obtaining the security and compliance measure and determined that moving to the cloud was the most efficient path. SCOR Velogica turned to 2nd Watch to help it achieve SOC2 accreditation with AWS, figuring it would be easier than making the journey on its own.

On working with 2nd Watch, Rodgers commented, ““They came in and quickly understood our technical infrastructure and how to replicate it in AWS, which is a huge feat.” SCOR met significant benefits thanks to the migration, including:

AWS optimization: 2nd Watch has helped SCOR identify opportunities for optimization and efficiencies on AWS, which will help down the road if the company wishes to expand the AWS-hosted application to regions outside of North America. “With our SOC2 Type 1 behind us, we are now focused on optimizing our resources in the AWS Cloud so we can fully exploit AWS’s capabilities to our security and business benefit.” Rodgers explains. “We will rely on 2nd Watch for guidance and assistance during this optimization phase.”

Cost savings on AWS: Rodgers hasn’t done a full analysis yet of cost savings from running the infrastructure on AWS, but he’s confident the migration will eventually cut up to 30% off the price of hosting and supporting Velogica internally.